5000 Interesting, Fun & Crazy Facts - the Knowledge Encyclopaedia to Win Trivia

428 Pages·2020·23.924 MB·English

by  Scott Matthews

5000 Random, Interesting
& Fun Facts You Need To
Know
The Knowledge Encyclopedia To Win Trivia
Scott Matthews
Copyright © 2021 Scott Matthews
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or
mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial
uses permitted by copyright law.
Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol
with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with
no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark. The information in this
book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has
been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have
any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places
you’ll go.
- Dr. Seuss
7 Benefits of Reading Facts
1. Knowledge
2. Stress Reduction
3. Mental Stimulation
4. Better Writing Skills
5. Vocabulary Expansion
6. Memory Improvement
7. Stronger Analytical Thinking Skills
Scott Matthews is a geologist, world traveller and author of the “Amazing World Facts”
series! He was born in Brooklyn, New York, by immigrant parents from Ukraine but grew
up in North Carolina. Scott studied at Duke University where he graduated with a degree
in Geology and History.
His studies allowed him to travel the globe where he saw and learned amazing trivial
knowledge with his many encounters. With the vast amount of interesting information he
accumulated, he created his best selling books “Random, Interesting & Fun Facts You Need
To Know.”
He hopes this book will provide you with hours of fun, knowledge, entertainment and
laughter.
If you gain any knowledge from this book, think it’s fun and could put a smile on
someone’s face, he would greatly appreciate your review on Amazon. You can scan the QR
code below which will take you straight to the review page!
Table of Contents
Airplanes & Airports ........................................................................................1
Amazing ..............................................................................................................6
Animals ..............................................................................................................28
Art & Artists ......................................................................................................76
Bizarre ................................................................................................................82
Books, Comic Books & Writers ......................................................................91
Buildings & Massive Monuments ..................................................................98
Cool ...................................................................................................................105
Countries & Cities ...........................................................................................124
Crime, Drugs & Prison ...................................................................................149
Entertainment Industry ..................................................................................156
Food & Drinks .................................................................................................188
Funny ................................................................................................................206
History & Culture ............................................................................................218
Human Body & Human Behavior .................................................................232
Interesting ........................................................................................................253
Inventions & Inventors ...................................................................................288
Kids....................................................................................................................299
Languages .........................................................................................................304
Nature, Earth & The Universe........................................................................310
Plants, Flowers & Trees ...................................................................................323
Really? ...............................................................................................................329
Royalty ..............................................................................................................360
Science ..............................................................................................................363
Shocking ...........................................................................................................368
Space & NASA .................................................................................................383
Sports ................................................................................................................390
Technology, Internet & Videogames .............................................................401
War & Military World .....................................................................................412
Airplanes & Airports
1. In China, less than 30% of its airspace can be used by commercial airlines. This could
be one of the reasons why China’s airports are the worst in the world when it comes to
punctuality.
2. Adam Armstrong bought a Ryan air airline ticket in 2015, and by mistake, his
surname was misspelled. He chose to change his name instead, because it was more cost
effective than just fixing the ticket. The airline charged 220 pounds in administrative fees
to alter the ticket, while it was free to change his name, and it only cost 103 pounds to get
a new passport.
3. Each American commercial aircraft is struck by lightning an estimated one time every
year. Fortunately, because of improved technology, lightning hasn’t caused a single plane to
crash since 1967.
4. China has a shortage of pilots, and as a result, pilots there can make up to $300,000
annually, tax free. A pilot named Jeff Graham said that he used to fly one hundred hours
monthly for Southern Air, but now as a carrier pilot in Shenzhen, he makes thrice as much
money flying only fifty hours a month.
5. Commercial flight QF1121 of Qantas Airways was the first one to use sustainable
derived bio-fuel in Australia. It took place in 2012, and one of the airplane’s engines used
fuel made from cooking oil.
6. The Juan T. Trippe was the first commercial jumbo jet in the world, and was made in
1970. It’s now been decommissioned and is in Seoul, South Korea, where it serves as a high
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concept restaurant.
7. In order to reduce the risk of collision with planes, US airports use peregrine falcons
to keep gulls and geese away from the runways.
8. Pilots on British Airways once turned back a plane in 2015 when a man took a poop
that smelled so bad.
9. Hassan The Second, the King of Morocco, once escaped death when he was on his
Boeing 727 being shot at by assassins. He grabbed the radio and told the assassins in the
planes who were shooting at him “stop shooting, the tyrant is dead,” which made them stop
and disperse.
10. In 2003, a Boeing 727 was stolen from an Angolan airport by two men. They simply
disappeared and were never seen again.
11. In Arizona there is a place known as the bone yard where about 3,000 military aircraft
live, some of them up to sixty years old. They literally just sit there and are occasionally
harvested for spare parts.
12. A study by the BBC was done in 2013 that showed that over 50% of pilots had fallen
asleep while flying and almost 30% had woken up to the copilot sleeping as well.
13. Todu Yamanaka, the CEO of Japan Airlines, earns less than the pilots of the company,
takes the bus in to work, and eats in the work cafeteria. He stated that others who seek
money first will always fail.
14. According to US and European laws, travelers whose flight is canceled or delayed
must be compensated by the air company. However, only a few of the eligible travelers ask
for it.
15. In the 1940’s, planes were a lot more comfortable. The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, for
example, had reclined club chairs throughout the cabin that could adjust into a bed so that
each passenger could sleep while on intercontinental flights.
16. In May, 1991, the world record for the most people on a commercial aircraft was set
when over a thousand Ethiopian Jews had to evacuate to Israel. The flight began with 1,086
passengers but ended up with 1,088 as two women were pregnant and had babies on board.
17. Jessica Cox from Sierra Vista, Arizona, became the first pilot ever to fly with no arms.
She was born in 1983 without arms due to an unusual birth defect.
18. In the 1980’s, in an attempt to save some money, the head of American Airlines at the
time, Robert Crandall, decided to remove a single olive from each salad served in first class.
It saved them $40,000 that year.
19. The first female flight attendant ever was Ellen Church, who began flying in 1930. She
implemented a plan that required all flight attendants to be registered nurses. However,
when World War II began, all nurses were enlisted in the war, so most airlines simply
dropped the requirement in order to find any workers.
20. If you were to be born on a plane flying above the US, you would automatically be
given citizenship; however, if you were born over an ocean, it would depend on which
country the plane is registered.
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21. In 2006, a woman with a medical condition on a flight from Washington to Dallas was
lighting matches to cover her own body odor. As the air staff couldn’t detect where the smell
was coming from, they were forced to land the plane in Nashville.
22. MI-5 once planned to use gerbils to detect terrorists and spies at airports, given that
their great sense of smell could acutely detect increased adrenaline in people. However, the
project was abandoned when they noticed that the gerbils were not able to tell the difference
between terrorists and those who were just afraid of flying.
23. Qatar Airways allows you
to travel with a falcon in the
cabin with the only condition of
having less than six falcons in total
aboard.
24. The lightest plane to ever
exist is the Bede BD-5 which
weighed only 357 pounds (162kg).
25. On March 27, 1977, one of
the deadliest air plane crashes of
all time happened on the ground.
When the KLM Royal Dutch
Airline Boeing 747 started to take
off, it crashed into a Pan American
World Airways Boeing 747 that
was still on the airstrip. The
tragedy occurred at Los Rodeos
Airport in the Canary Islands,
killing a total of 574 people from
both planes.
26. In 1927, American aviator
Charles Augustus Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic. The pilot
was a polygamist with three other families and wives in Germany and Switzerland.
27. For a ten hour trip, a Boeing 747 uses 39,000 gallons (150,000 liters) of fuel on average.
This means the plane needs a gallon (four liters) for every second that it’s in the air.
28. The largest plane in the Air Force is the Lockheed Martin C-5. It’s large enough to
transport entire submarines.
29. The Air lander 10 is the largest airship of the world, measuring ninety two meters
(301.7 feet) long. It’s filled with almost 1,300,000 cubic feet (37,000 cubic meters) of helium
and can reach an altitude of 2.9 miles (4.8 kilometers). The airship has been nicknamed as
the flying bum and it can remain in the sky for up to five days.
30. After terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, all flights were grounded,
except for a single plane that was going to save a person’s life. The plane traveled from
San Diego, California, to Miami, Florida, transporting an anti-venom for a life threatening
snake bite that a man had gotten. The flight was escorted by two fighter jets, and the man’s
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life was saved.
31. Most foods don’t taste too good on airplanes because when you fly, your taste buds
along with your sense of smell are impacted. When in a pressurized cabin, your perception
of sweetness and saltiness naturally reduces.
32. Planes don’t crash as often as you might imagine. Very few planes ever crash, and
when they do, the chances of you dying are about one in eleven million. If you are in a plane
and it literally goes down, 95.7% of people in it will likely survive.
33. In order to scare off birds, the Gloucester-shire Airport in England used to blast Tina
Turner music. It was proved to work even better than blasting bird distress calls.
34. The fastest aircraft made by man is the SR 71 which flew over four thousand missiles
while it was in service.
35. The “Bukken Bruse” flew from Oslo, Norway, en-route to the city of Hommelvik in
the same country, on October 2, 1948. Bertrand Russel, a seventy six year old philosopher,
upon boarding the aircraft, asked to be seated in the smoking section, saying that “if I
cannot smoke, I should die.” As the plane landed, the pilot lost control, and it crashed,
killing nineteen people who were all sitting in the non-smoking section.
36. A solar plane that is set to become the first ever solar plane to reach the stratosphere
was created by Swiss adventurer Raphael Domjan. It’s a sleek white two seater with long
wings that are covered with 237 square feet (seventy two square meters) of solar panels.
37. The shortest commercial flight in the world is only 1.7 miles (2.73 kilometers) in
distance. It covers the way between two small Orkney Islands north of Scotland, from the
Westray Airport to the Papa Westray Airport. If the wind is ideal, it can take as little as forty
seven seconds from start to finish.
38. Oxygen masks in airplanes aren’t actually connected to an oxygen tank. They instead
use a chemical reaction to generate it on the spot.
39. In 1910, the first ever in-flight radio transmission was sent by Walter Wellmen, while
he flew across the Atlantic Ocean along with five companions and his cat. The message said:
“Roy, come and get this goddamn cat!”
40. A passenger flight from Moscow to Hong Kong called Aeroflot flight 593 crashed into
a mountain range killing everyone on board. Eventually, it was known that the pilot let his
children temporarily fly the plane, but his sixteen year old son unintentionally deactivated
the autopilot controls. The pilots ended up over correcting and crashed the plane.
41. One of the world’s first private pilots was magician and escape artist Harry Houdini.
During his maiden flight in Germany, he actually crashed, but he continued practicing and
eventually set his sights on becoming the first man to pilot an airplane in Austria.
42. Javelins are permitted on Delta Air Lines, except for flights departing from or landing
in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, or Dublin in Ireland.
43. Any plane that the president of the United States happens to be traveling on at
a particular time is given the name Air Force One. Likewise, the Army aircraft that the
president is traveling on is called Army One while the helicopter is called Marine One.
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